Peterborough United Foundation are delighted to announce our longest serving member of staff, Gavin Slater, as our Community Captain on the 20th Anniversary Year of Premier League Kicks.
Gav has been involved with Peterborough United Foundation since September 2009 and has been a full-time member of staff since January 2014.
Gav started delivering on development centres before adding schools’ sessions and holiday camps into his timetable a year or so after. As sessions increased, he joined as a full-time Community Coach and delivered on the same projects.
He then managed the Development Centres and Holiday Camps and later added in schools and community work under both Participation Manager and Community Manager titles.
After passing the management of Development Centres and Holiday Camps to colleagues, Gav concentrated on schools, Premier League Primary Stars and Kicks under the School Sports Manager title. He still holds the same title but no longer oversees the Premier League Kicks project but still delivers on some sessions each week.
As you can imagine, a lot has changed at Peterborough United Foundation since 2009, and Gav has seen all of those changes during his time with the Foundation so far: “Everything is bigger now with the growth and involvement of the Posh Foundation in the community. For example, the women’s and girls’ section was just forming as I joined full-time and there was minimal health and wellbeing work. Previously, the majority of the sessions centred around football, which isn’t true today. Since starting, the Football and Education Programme has expanded from a squad of ten boys playing Futsal to the two boys and two girls’ teams that we have this season – naturally the staff numbers on these projects have grown too!”
Peterborough United Foundation has been delivering Premier League Primary Stars since 2016 and Premier League Kicks since 2019,
“The Kicks project has really boosted the opportunities for recreational play and informal sessions around the greater Peterborough area. A major plus is that the Premier League funding has enabled the sessions to be free of charge for youngsters, enabling families that may not ordinarily be able to afford to pay for sessions to be able to participate.” Gav said.
And this year, on the 20th Anniversary Year of Premier League Kicks, we’re delighted to name Gav as our Community Captain – an award presented to him by Peterborough United Manager, Luke Williams, earlier this week.
Gav said: “I am delighted to be named the Community Captain for this year. I have thoroughly enjoyed planning, delivering and overseeing the Premier League projects since our involvement. Both Premier League Kicks and Primary Stars use football to engage with young people at sessions whether in or out of school and being involved with them has been rewarding to see just how beneficial it can be to some youngsters. Both projects are more than just football, it can be support on school subjects, guidance on personal situations or a safe space to play with friends and meet new people.”
Congratulations, Gav, and thank you for your continued hard work in the ongoing success of Peterborough United Foundation in the local community!